Obituary of Royal E. House

THE OBITUARY RECORD

Royal E. House.

Royal E. House, who died Monday in Bridgeport, Conn., was born in Susquehanna, Penn., in September, 1814. From early childhood he showed a decided taste for mechanism. He was one of the early lights in the American Patent Office. His first patent was No. 1,200, his latest No. 533,600. In 1840 he constructed a water-wheel embodying the principles of the modern turbine. Prof. Morse had taken, out his earlier patents, but had not built the first electro-magnetic line from "Washington to Baltimore when Mr. House conceived the idea of printing telegraph. He made his first machine for this purpose in 1844 and exhibited it in New-York. The system printed its message in Roman letters, and the actual speed attained was fifty words a minute. In 1844 the Morse company filed a petition for an injunction, claiming an infringement, and to stop House operating a line between New-York and Boston. The court found that there was no infringement. When it was found that by the Morse system the message could be taken by sound the expensive machine of Mr. House went out of use. Mr. House was the inventor of several other instruments used in telegraphy.